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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Tao Jonesing — Misframing the Frame

The day after missing the mark, Charles Hugh Smith hits it without realizing it in his latest post "The Grand Game of Perception Management."

All economic models of human behavior, whether a technocratic "econometric" model or the Austrian School's economic model, are designed to drive human behavior, not reflect it. What is portrayed as a camera is really an engine. All of human history has shown the fundamental truth that having enough people believe it is so will indeed make it so.

The cornerstone of perception management is the false certainty of superiority, in particular the false certainty of superiority of one's political economy. Without an FCS to anchor what one perceives, perceptions cannot be managed.

Hugely important observation. The structure of institutional arrangements is built on a framework of norms that serve as criteria and prescriptions. This determines the cognitive frames in terms of which knowledge is presented.

Every economic school resets on a framework of stated assumptions and unstated and mostly hidden presumptions, including methodology and prioritization of values.